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There's an accepted reverence surrounding The Queen of England. Her picture has been on money and stamps since our parents were born, we see black and white footage of her coronation as symbolic of England's war victory and our historic constitution- everyone alive in England today has grown up with her familiar presence

So, even though we recognise footballers singing 'god save the queen' before a match as archaic, there's still a degree of acceptance of it, because, after all, she's The Queen.

But when she dies, it would seem to me that the whole notion of a royal family is exposed as being fairly ridiculous, and not dissimilar to the 'cult of personality' that North Korea has, except, well, no-one ever gave a shit about Prince Charles

Can you imagine his face on money? Can you imagine singing 'God Save The King' with a straight face knowing you are referring to a guy who most people have very little regard for, if he enters their consciousness at all

I just can't imagine anyone taking his coronation seriously, and it would seem like the whole thing would just die - I mean, There must have been hundreds more references to Lily Allen than Prince Charles if you had a corpus of last years newspapers.

I understand the financial benefits of having a Ceremonial head of state rather than a president with executive powers, and would certainly not welcome 'President Brown' - its more a matter of what people will actually think to have Prince Charles as King

I think I've only seen it in colour for quite a while, now. I guess if one family could afford some colour film it would be the Windsors.

Also, I'm sure the same thing has been thought after any long-reigning monarch. I'm fairly sure George IV was facing a similar public feeling to the one your ascribing for Charles. In reality, the world will just move on.

wills to nab the crown instead
who doesn't love him? prince of our hearts :*)
nation goes bananas, parades of the like not seen since we won the 2005 ashes
harry in the background peeling the label on a bottle of becks in frustration
prince phillip not knowing what day it is
global leaders preferring to talk to king bill over gaaaawdon brooooown
a golden age dawns

Relative to most of his family he's pretty progressive and modern in his thinking, think he'd do quite well as King.

As DK says above there'll be a ton of people who still go nuts for the monarchy and most people I think see the value in having them around. Certainly there seems to be a lot less ani-monarchy feeling compared to about 10 years ago.

and when that year approaches she will be our longest reigning monach in British history. Beating Victoria.

And no, the royal family will remain here even when the queen is dead.

Arguably, 775 rooms in Buckingham palace could re-home 775 people (well, maybe), but as a tour guide around London I know how much the toruist industry makes from the Royal family. We couldn't have any Americans here, they cream theirselves over the Royal family.

All my family are very anti-Royalist, and I would respect them alot more if they actually goverened the state, as they would actually be earning their money rather than just sitting on their lardy arses and doing fuck all.

But they bring money. The tourist industry in London IS the Royal family.

the worst was recently, he threatened to resign from the National Trust because he didn't like the design for the new HQ. he claimed it was most environmentally unfriendly than the one he supported until someone got together all the figures and pointed out his favoured design would be much worse environmentally, whereupon he thankfully shut up and went back to looking like a horse.

the importance of and interest in the crown will diminish enough to render them pretty much redundant in public life.
Those who remain interested, even now, tend to be in the older generations and Charles is such a dull character that by the time he makes way for someone more redtop/e4 friendly like will it could be that it's only a real minority who care enough to pay any attention to them.

In fact, I've seen in written and argued very well that even if Elizabeth II hadn't had such a long reign that with interwar scandals the process had already begun and without her the Windsors would be a footnote in british society already.

if a monarch tried to exercise any power (say, for example, refusing to appoint the leader of a party as PM, as George III did with Charles James Fox in 17..something), they'd either find themselves ignored or given the old heave-ho

sovereignty would go straight to William due to some of the problems cited here with Charles, and i don't suppose it looks great to have a guy on his second marraige as 'Defender of the Faith'.

I don't see how the nation would be any better off without them, it would be just another facet of Britain's identity lost followed by the Pound, Red telephone boxes and Pillar boxes repalced with some dogshit european approved bollocks (going off on one now).